UN News Centre - Africa

More than 200 migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean in the past three days, bringing the overall death toll so far this year to more than 1,000, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Monday.  

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned an attack in Gao, northern Mali, targeting international forces that left at least two civilians dead and over fifteen injured.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has strongly condemned the attack against the G5 Sahel joint force Headquarters in Mali’s restive Mopti region.

The United Nations has launched a major support plan to promote sustainable peace and inclusive growth as well as empower women and youth in Africa's vast Sahel region.

Although recent engagement between the main political rivals in South Sudan is a welcome development, ending the country’s long-standing conflict will only be achieved by addressing its root causes and ensuring women, youth and other sectors contribute to peace efforts.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed the high-level visit of a delegation from Eritrea to neighbouring Ethiopia which began on Tuesday, as “a first concrete step” in the process of normalizing relations between the two countries.

The United Nations stands ready to support efforts to resolve deadly clashes between farmers and nomadic herders in areas of West and Central Africa, the head of the global organization said on Thursday.

In Burundi, opponents of constitutional reform supported by the Government have faced torture and execution amid a “continuing environment of threats and intimidation”, senior UN investigators said on Wednesday.

The United Nations Secretary-General has welcomed an agreement signed on Wednesday by the President of South Sudan and his former Vice President, which it is hoped will lead to an “inclusive and implementable” peace deal to end years of civil conflict in the world’s youngest nation.

The UN chief on Tuesday condemned the killing of a peacekeeper from Bangladesh, who was supporting the delivery of humanitarian aid to vulnerable civilians in South Sudan.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appealed for calm and restraint in the Mopti region of central Mali, where over 20 people are reported to have been killed in intercommunal clashes over the weekend.

One person has reportedly died, and dozens were injured after an explosion ripped through a large crowd at a rally for the new Prime Minister of Ethiopia on Saturday, which the UN chief described as a matter of “grave concern”.

While many positive steps have been taken in the Central African Republic (CAR), progress has been too slow and is continually under threat from “those who seek private gains through violence,” the United Nations envoy on the ground told the Security Council on Thursday, underscoring that restoring government authority is “key”, both now and in the long-term.

The United Nations has announced its readiness to support Eritrea and Ethiopia following recent peace overtures between the two neighbouring States in the Horn of Africa.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned Saturday’s attacks in northeastern Nigeria by suspected Boko Haram insurgents targeting Eid al-Fitr celebrations.

Though the past 12 months had been the most encouraging in terms of advancing the peace process in Mali, security challenges still pose a dangerous threat, with civilians and security forces still being attacked, the top United Nations peacekeeping official told the Security Council on Thursday.  

The scourge of terrorism and violent extremism continues to affect all of Central Africa and divert government resources from much-needed development programmes to costly security operations, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council on Wednesday. 

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed the formation on Monday of a government of national unity in Madagascar led by a non-partisan Prime Minister, as requested by the nation’s leading constitutional court.

The African Union-United Nations Hybrid Mission in Darfur “must change” in accordance with the shifting realities on the ground, the Organization’s top peacekeeping official said on Monday, highlighting the need to “closely link” the mission’s drawdown to the scaling up of both peacekeeping and development activities.

The United Nations chief has strongly condemned Sunday’s attack that killed a peacekeeper in the Central African Republic (CAR); the second ‘blue helmet’ to lose his life there in the space of a week.